This invention relates to mowers with disks at least one of which is driven by driving means supported by the frame.
Mowers of this kind are generally constituted by a frame extending longitudinally at right angles to the direction in which the mower moves, when it is operating. The frame houses driving means, or transmission elements to drive the disks. These elements generally take the form of pinions or wheels, whose teeth are either straight, helical or bevel-cut. Some of those pinions or wheels are directly connected to the disks of the mower by means of shafts or other driving elements.
For this purpose, it is known for the pinions secured to a shaft to be forged; after machining, these undergo heat treatment before being grinded. This production method, which is perfectly satisfactory from the functional standpoint, has the disadvantage of being very costly.
There are other ways of assembling a pinion or a driving wheel, such as a gear wheel, to its shaft, for example, by using a screw connection. This method is also costly and, in addition, has the disadvantage of being unreliable because of the risk of the screw becoming loose.
In addition, the shaft mentioned above is guided in a bearing block with the aid of antifriction bearings, such as ball bearings, whose assembly on the shaft and in its bearing block demands a lot of care, because of the high speed at which each shaft has to drive its associated disk. Basically, fitting such bearings is not within the capability of the user of such mowers; in the event of breakdowns caused by these components, this means that the machine has to be taken to a specialist so that the required repairs can be made. This takes time and generally deprives the user of the mower of its services, at a time when he urgently needs them, in particular to take advantage of the optimum conditions of maturity of the fodder to be mowed, and of favorable weather conditions for harvesting.